The Hat That Helped an Artist's Fortune
A struggling artist records how a wife’s thrift and a gifted hat spark a chain of good luck. He buys her a new coat with an order for pictures, and a generous buyer advances funds. He secretly plans gifts, but the wife’s tearful joy at a letter of thanks proves richer than any wardrobe. The tale closes with the wife recalling the old brown hat that sparked their fortune.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
John Flakewhite
John
Mary Flakewhite
Praying Man Lincoln Story In Railcar Joke
A humorous tale about two Quakeresses on a railroad car discussing the war’s end. One says Jefferson will succeed because he is a praying man while another notes Abraham Lincoln is also a praying man. The reply argues the Lord might think Abraham is joking.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Lincoln
Jefferson
Abraham
The Rope That Saves A Lost Sailor Faith and Redemption
A meditation uses a drowning sailor and a frayed rope to illustrate salvation. The friend throwing the rope saves the sailor, while the sailor’s act of seizing the rope represents faith. Jesus is the friend who casts the rope, and faith binds the sinner to Christ for redemption.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Farrag
Jesus
Christ
Without An Enemy to Please All
An exhortation against pleasing every opinion and dodging enemies. Stand by your own colors with independent, steady resolve regardless of wind, weather, or pressure.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Bristol
Seth Paull
Obedience and Waves Describe Early Health Texts
The article argues for strict obedience as a home rule, praising unyielding parental firmness over Reason. It then explains tidal waves and sea behavior, detailing wind-driven wave formation, depth effects, and the hollow sea state. It closes with foot care advice on warmth, fit, and avoiding abrupt boot changes.
Way We Like Them
A reflection on what makes people and books likable beyond quantity. The author notes friendship rests on a quality that endures beyond outward details, contrasting mere approval with genuine attachment and hinted by poets’ timeless insight.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Seribner
Little Things Well Teachings From a Reflective Note
A speaker thanks a friend for stressing the value of doing little tasks well. He reflects on how small parts must be finished carefully to ensure the whole succeeds, admiring nature’s harmony and God’s plan with little plans shaping hills and valleys.
Great Men and Their Musical Tastes Through History
A historical meditation lists Socrates Nero Luther Frederick II Milton Bentham Gainsborough Byron Goethe and others noting their diverse pleasures from music to flowers and even keeping animals. The anecdotes mix ornament and whimsy about how notable figures found solace in art and nature.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Socrates
Epaminondas
Nero
Rome
Luther
Frederick II
Prussia
Milton
Bentham
Gainsborough
Byron
The Sniper's Bridge
A boy recalls a spider named Crusoe playfully stranded on a makeshift island in a washbasin. The creature tests a web rope to reach shore, then secures its escape route before being returned home. Hearth and Home.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Robinson Crusoe
Spider
Crusoe
Ile’d
Mr. Robinson
Desert Island
Plants for sunny windows and window garden ideas
A Boston exchange suggests bright window plant layouts for year round charm. Use maurandias, nasturtium, ivy, senecio, heliotrope, lacio, scarlet and white geraniums, mignonette, alyssum, linaria cymbalaria, petunias, yellow myrtle, wandering Jew, ice plant, saxifrage beefsteak geranium, arranged to frame the box and cascade to the floor.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Boston Exchange
Germany
Anecdote of the Road Prompting a Wrong Turn
A lawyer, seeking directions in a town, stops at a cottage where the woman instructs him to go straight then turn right. She herself plans to lead him off course, saying bad company is better than none. He agrees and travels on, only to learn they passed the correct road miles earlier.
Desert heat triggers strange brain fever among travelers
The Sahara sun and dry air induce a fever called ragle that leaves explorers delirious with vivid mirages and joyful euphoria. Insects suffer too as intense heat kills flies and fleas, while the brain-altering state mirrors hasheesh and rapidly dulls the will to live.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Sahara
Preposterous memory prizes spark parental concern
A London style critique notes a clergyman’s £5 Sunday School prize for copying the entire New Testament in six months. A boy produced neat two thousand pages weighing sixteen pounds, raising questions about merit and youth sleep or recreation loss.
Electric sawing by electricity reshapes old impossibilities
The Scientific American describes George Robinson of New York inventing a method to cut wood with electricity. A heated platinum wire acts as a saw with no muscular effort, using a simple battery. Wires guided by handles enable cutting trees, logs, or boards, challenging skeptics who doubted such a result.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Scientific American
George Robinson
M. D
New York
A Great Loss of a Painful Young City Figure
A contemporary laments the removal of a troubled youth who once caused widespread stir. The account lists a string of self destructive stunts from early on to later incidents, highlighting his dangerous exploits and the media’s fascination.
Gallantry and seating courtesy in social expectations
A critique of modern manners and gallantry. The piece argues that strength should yield to the weak and praises those who give up seats to the elderly and weary, noting genuine courtesy from all backgrounds far surpasses ritual bowing and superficial politeness.
Fruit Trees Worth More Than Cost On Estates
Owners of landed estates should plant fruit trees and vines as they significantly boost farm value and household meals. Prospective buyers weigh orchards before purchasing, and properly tended fruit crops offer strong profits from quality varieties and timely harvests.
Railway Ticket Layovers and Date of Validity
A discussion on whether passengers may lay over and resume travel with one ticket. Courts have held a ticket from Boston to New York grants freedom to stop anywhere and continue later without a new ticket. The legend good for this date only holds no legal weight. conductors cannot enforce implied terms.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Tims
Boston
New York
Shylock Moneylender Honored With Tomb Says It All
In a Kansas town a wealthy moneylender, famed for high interest and church devotion, plans a family tomb. He pays in full for a monument, telling the stonecutter to choose an appropriate inscription. The stonecutter, bearing a grudge, later adds a mocking epitaph: Here lies Old Thirty-five Per Cent. The more he maise, the leas bee spent.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Eritvrit
Orover
Kansas
Ile
Old Jones Outsmarts Mosquito Invasion At Bedtime
An old man uses a mosquito net to trap the insects by keeping the net half open at night. When the mosquitoes swarm in believing they have a soft target they are sealed in as he sleeps on the floor. The story depicts the insects as skeletal and frustrated as Jones laughs at their efforts.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Old Jones
Jones
Also Mentioned on This Page
Bristol Rheame
Phenix Building
Hope Street
Co. A. Greene
the Evening Story
Earth
Angela
God
Pacific
R. 1
W. B. Spooner & Son
Elias Howe
MR. Ames
Westminster Street
Providence
R. E. Sisson
Just
Ife
Mls
B. M. Lincoln
OFUL
Caah
Pierce’s Dry Goods
Pearse
Pepe Street
S. Pearse
R. S. Pearse
Ashmere Boucq
Kunro ‘Ro
J A. Miller
Central Park
Jack Frost
Mrs. Flakewhite
Mary
Chemical Bank
London
This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!